European distributors have “pushed back” on domestic mills’ stainless steel price rises as weak demand continues to squeeze their profit margins, a new MEPS podcast reveals.

In this seven-minute episode from MEPS’s short ‘Market in Minutes’ podcast series steel market analyst Michelle Kirton shares insight into March’s increasingly subdued stainless steel market, which undermined mills’ attempts to realise higher prices. 

“Uncertainty was the keyword in last month’s research in almost every region we research and that’s because of the US trade tariffs,” she said.

“While this won’t directly affect all the distributors and stockists [in Europe], it will affect end-users, and if they’re producing less and buying less steel that will have a knock-on effect.”

Also discussed in this month’s Market in Minutes podcast on the European stainless steel market are:

• Distributors' and stockists' profitability at risk
• Expectations that EU safeguard measures’ quotas to fill quickly, despite recent revisions
• The effect of the European Commission’s proposed “melted and poured” rule for imports
• A price outlook for the months ahead